Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/654

 640 rEDERAIi REPORTER, �Has to be tie3 or otherwise secured in the moulh of tîie bottle. Among the inventions Buggested heretofore, having for their object the great desideratum of dispensing with the expensive and laborious System of corks and fastenings, the best method to my knowledge is that shown and described in letters patent granted to me on the twenty-sixth day of August, 1862. But experience and thorough practical tests have shown that in the method patented to me there are serious objections -when, put into general use; as, for instance, the liability of the mechanism to clog up, the necessity of an instrument for the purpose of readily opening the mouth of the bottle to empty it of its contents, and the liability of the neeks of the bottles, from their necessarily weak form, to break during transpor- tation or handling. These objections, and others, I propose to effeotually overcome by my present invention, which has îor a further object to produce a more economical, durable, and desirable method of stopping bottles than any heretofore known; and to these ends my invention consista in the em- ployment of a stopper which may be inserted through the ueck of the bottle, and so constructed that it can be brought into close contact with a suitable bearing surface or seat on the interior or neck of the bottle to close it, and be depressed or pushed down into the bottle to open it, as will be herein- after more fully explained. And my invention consists further in so constructing the stopper and forming the seat or bearing surface in the neck of the bottle, that, while the stopper may be readily forced into the bottle, any tendency to force it out will only tighten the joint between the stopper and the seat in the bottle neck, as will be presently more fully explained. And my invention further consists in mak- ing the entire stopper of a length exceeding the diameter of the bottle in which it is to be used, so that the stopper, while resting in the body of the bottle, cannot turn round, but must always present itself right end foremost to the mouth of the bottle, as will be more fully described hereinafter. ♦ • • "Figure 1 is a vertical or longitudinal section of a bottle, with the stopper represented in the position in which it closes or stops the mouth of the bottle. Figure 2 is an elevation ����